Payback
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: Oneshot. A year after losing their rent money and being forced to move, Bonnie takes matters into her own hands when Christy recognizes the man who mugged her.


Payback

Christy gasped loudly and ducked down in the driver seat of the car. "Oh my God!"

Bonnie did a double take looking at her and out the windshield at the traffic ahead of them that was also stopped for the light. "What? What's wrong?"

"It's him!" Christy got out in a choked whisper.

"Who?" Bonnie asked.

Christy pointed her finger to the large black man who was standing by the corner of the road, kicking a car that clearly wouldn't start. "Him."

"Who is he?" Bonnie asked.

"He's the one that held a gun on me and stole our rent money last year," Christy said, her eyes wide with fear.

Bonnie did another double take. "Hold on...you mean you were serious about that?"

"Mom! I told you I was!" Christy replied. "Look, I know back then I was having a gambling problem, but I swear, I had the money for us to make the rent, I placed our money on a game, and I won back enough to catch us _all_ the way up on the rent, not just the month we were supposed to pay...and as I was walking out, _he_ came up behind me with a gun and took it from me."

Bonnie turned back to look out the windshield and grunted, "Son of a bitch!" as she aggressively wrestled with her seat belt to un-click it.

"Mom! What're you doing?" Christy asked.

"Don't ask, plausible deniability," Bonnie said as she shoved her seat belt to the side and reached for the door handle, "You head on home, I'll either be back later or I'll be calling you from jail. You have enough to make bail on aggravated battery, right?"

Christy paused for a minute and answered, "I can get it."

"Good," Bonnie shoved her door open.

"No, Mom, don't!" Christy pleaded with her, "He has a gun, he could be dangerous!"

"Oh yeah, like that's ever stopped me," Bonnie replied as she got out of the car and slammed the door.

Christy tensed in her seat and felt her eyes widen even more in dreaded anticipation as she saw her mom march over to the mugger, and immediately started wailing on the man, screaming at him. Christy ducked down in her seat again as she heard Bonnie's voice trailing through the open window, "It's your fault my grandson is living in a _closet_! It's your fault I have to sleep with my daughter! It's _your_ fault I have to deal with 300 pound naked women, expired tenants who sit around rotting for days, and families of raccoons living in the walls!"

Christy flinched and grimaced and cringed at every syllable coming out of Bonnie's mouth as she continued beating on the large man. The light changed and traffic started moving, and Christy anxiously pressed her foot to the accelerator and got out of there before things got any uglier than they already were.

* * *

The front door swung open and Bonnie stepped in two hours later, her hair mussed, her face flushed, and a car steering wheel in her hand.

"I'm home," she announced with a heaving breath as she kicked the door shut behind her.

"Oh my God, Mom, are you okay?" Christy asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she panted, "I needed some exercise today anyway."

"What happened?" Christy asked. "I've been so worried."

Bonnie thrust her hand down her shirt and pulled dollar bills out of her cleavage, "I know this doesn't make up for the rent money we lost...but I _did_ get $900 for our troubles. Our friend the mugger has had a very lucrative week."

Christy's eyes doubled in size. "You _mugged_ the mugger?"

"What?" Bonnie asked casually, "You think this is my first time? What do you think I did before I upgraded to a prostitution ring?"

"Mom, I don't believe this," Christy said, "how could you do it?"

"Very well!" Bonnie answered, "Especially given how long I've been out of practice. Some things really are just like riding a bike, you never forget." She grinned proudly. "Oh! Also," she reached into her pants pocket and pulled her hand out and held it open palm up and revealed a gold tooth, "Huh? Huh? Think we can get a good price on this?"

"Oh my God, Mom, you didn't!" Christy exclaimed in disbelief.

"I didn't have to," Bonnie shook her head, "_he_ did it himself just so I'd leave him alone." She patted Christy on the shoulder and told her, "He is going to think twice before he tries robbing anybody else."

Christy processed this and started to calm down. Slowly she nodded her head, more out of just going along with it than actually agreeing. "Okay...but, what's the steering wheel for?"

Bonnie looked at the wheel in her hand as if she'd forgotten she was holding onto it and told Christy, "That was just for kicks. He's going to have one hell of a story for the tow truck driver that picks him up." With that she dropped it on the floor.

"Mom..."

Bonnie closed the gap between them by latching onto Christy in a smothering embrace.

"Mom...what're you doing?"

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you," Bonnie told her earnestly. "You could've been killed and I thought you were making it up. I know I've done a lot of bad things, but not believing you is the worst thing I've ever done."

"Oh...I'm not sure it's the _worst_ thing you've ever done," Christy said half under her breath, then sighed, "but it was pretty bad."

"I know," Bonnie said, "I'm so sorry." She pulled back and looked Christy in the eyes and told her, "The worst thing my foster parents ever did, any and all of them, is they never believed me when I was telling the truth. I know how much it hurts. I should've known better."

"I'm sorry, Mom," Christy said, then leaned in to hug her mother again. "But, you know...I _was_ raised by one of the best liars in the world."

"_One_ of?" Bonnie asked with a knowing smirk.

"I guess," Christy said with some difficulty, "after all the lies I told to cover up the fact I was gambling away our money...it's not so strange to think I could've lied about this."

"No, it's not," Bonnie responded. "But I _am_ a damn fantastic liar, I should be able to tell the difference when you're lying to my face and when you're telling me the truth."

"Well...it doesn't matter now," Christy told her. "What matters is you know _now_ that I was...and...we got some money out of it."

They laughed.

"So, how should we spend this?" Bonnie asked as she sorted through the bills.

Sarcastically, Christy answered, "Stolen money is supposed to be spent on frivolous stuff."

"So how about a spa day?" Bonnie asked.

"We...can't go back to the spa," Christy remembered with a groan.

"Oh yeah...well, how about we go out to a nice dinner somewhere and see a movie?"

"Okay, but um, not any of the theaters where your picture's hanging in the box office," Christy said.

"Well that cuts our choices in half," Bonnie replied.

"Hey, Mom," Christy said. "Thanks...for everything."

Bonnie looked at her with soft eyes and in a low, somber tone she said, "I'm still learning how to be a good mom."

"You're a great mom," Christy told her. "It's not everybody who will go out and mug their child's mugger."

"Oh please, as if it's that hard," Bonnie said boastfully, "the bigger they are, the bigger pussies they are."

Half under her breath, Christy responded, "Easy to say when you're as tall as a redwood yourself."

"What?" Bonnie asked.

"Nothing," Christy answered with a smile, "Let's go to dinner."


End file.
